Letter from CSCA: Questions re. the CRRRC Purchase Report

29 January 2026

Dear City of Ottawa Councillors and Mayor Sutcliffe,

The Carlsbad Springs Community Association (CSCA) has the following

questions that were not answered during the review of the CRRRC

Purchase Report at the Ottawa City Council Session on the 28th of January

2026.

We ask that a response to our letter, along with the answers to the

following questions, be sent to us by Friday February 6th 2026.

Question 1: The Report references the original 2015 CRRRC Community

Consultation where it was stipulated that the corporation would provision a

‘Community Benefit Fund’ meant to compensate residents for property

damage and/or devaluation resulting from the development and/or

operation of the dump.

As the sale was changed from a ‘shares sale’ to an ‘asset sale’ and this

fund is not on the list of included assets - how is the City intending to

support this funding commitment?

Question 2: Through the City’s public consultation process on November

21st 2025, additional documents were provided to the City to support fact-

finding requirements, accurate research efforts and ensure due diligence.

In the presentation by Harry Baker to Council on November 21st 2025, he

referenced several studies, all listed at the end of the submitted

presentation, among them the GEOCON report Preliminary Geotechnical

Investigation of Candidate Landfill Site 10 for the Regional Municipality of

Ottawa-Carleton, Ottawa (November 1987), the Engineering Report

Commissioned by CRCCPE (February 2015) by LRL Associates/Lascelles,

and their review by Dr. J. Kenneth Torrance, Professor Emeritus,

Department of Geography and Environmental Studies at Carleton

University, who is an internationally recognized expert in marine clays.

These studies indicate that the development of a dump on the CRRRC site

is not feasible due to the presence of liquifiable clay in the soil substrate, a

particular type of Leda clay.

Were these studies part of the City Staff review? Information on these

studies was submitted to Council at the first opportunity for public input,

why does the due diligence document indicate that the reviewing consultant

‘Dillon’ was restricted to reviewing only supporting documentation provided

by the sellers?

Question 3: None of the City's current Waste Facilities are built on clay.

The Report indicates that KPMG based their financial modeling on key

revenue and cost inputs from the City’s existing Trail Waste Facility Landfill,

and on the Waste Management Technologies Feasibility Study conducted

by HDR Consulting. This study recommends that a business plan should

be drafted for developing a new dump, among other options - but does not

offer additional guidance on the process or how to accommodate for the

geotechnical realities of the current CRRRC site.

How was it determined that these two sources of information are relevant

and sufficient to calculate the cost for developing and operating a new

waste facility constructed on unfamiliar Leda clay?

The CSCA will continue to strongly advocate for our rural residents, our

ecosystem and the sustainability of our area and ask to be heavily involved

in the future decisions for our community.